Corcovado to the Amazon.
Christ the Redeemer and Sugarloaf, both sides of Iguaçu, a schooner out of Salvador and the black river past Manaus: how each one actually runs, what it costs, and who you book it with.
The seven Brazil starts with.
These are the bookings a Brazilian trip gets built around: the cable car up Sugarloaf in the last hour of light, a morning walking Rocinha with someone who lives there, the stadium where the 1950 final broke the country’s heart.
6-Stop Highlights of Rio with Lunch
A smart 8-hour Rio highlights circuit with Christ the Redeemer, Selarón Steps, Maracanã and Sambadrome, Cathedral stained glass, and Sugarloaf lunch.
From $130 per person
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Two hundred and seventy-five waterfalls.
Foz do Iguaçu is a two-hour flight from Rio, and the falls sit on both sides of the frontier. Brazil gives you the panorama and the walkway out into the spray; Argentina puts you on the catwalks above the Devil’s Throat. Most people do both, and almost everyone talks about the boat afterwards.
After Rio, which way?
Rio is the easy part. The rest of the country is a flight away in three directions, and the direction you choose decides what the rest of the fortnight looks like. These are the three people actually choose, with what the mornings look like and what they cost.
Two hours west by air
Iguaçu Falls
10 hours · from $63 · 1,542 reviews
Two hours in the air, then two days on foot. The Brazilian side is the wide view and the walkway into the spray; the Argentine side is the catwalk over the Devil’s Throat. Bring a dry bag for the Macuco boat. Itaipu dam and the bird park fill whatever the falls leave you.
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Four hours north by air
The Amazon at Manaus
12 hours · from $100 · 408 reviews
Manaus is four hours from Rio and the meeting of the waters begins twenty minutes downstream, where the black Negro runs beside the pale Solimões without mixing. Day boats reach the flooded igapó forest and the Presidente Figueiredo falls. Highest water, and best boating, from December to May.
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Up the coast to Bahia
Salvador and the Recôncavo
62 reviews
The first capital, and the city that changes the register of a Brazilian trip: gilt churches above the cobbles of Pelourinho, capoeira in the square, a schooner across the bay to Itaparica. Give it four days and Chapada Diamantina is inland from there.
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Lapa fills up on a Friday.
Samba here happens late and mostly outdoors. Pedra do Sal on a Monday night, the arches at Lapa on a Friday, a beginner’s class in Ipanema first if you would rather learn the step before you use it. Knowing which unmarked door to walk through is the whole skill.
Green water, an hour out of town.
Arraial do Cabo gets called the Brazilian Caribbean and for once the nickname holds up. Angra dos Reis counts its islands in the hundreds. Both are a morning’s drive from Copacabana, and both go further on a schooner than on a speedboat.
Rio reads best from above it.
Hang gliders step off the ramp at Pedra Bonita and land on São Conrado beach ten minutes later. Helicopters loop the statue and the bay in twenty. If you would rather earn the view, Pedra da Gávea takes seven hours and a scramble at the top.
Salvador was the capital first.
For two hundred years before Rio, Bahia ran the country. Pelourinho still has the gilded churches and the cobbles that came ashore as ballast in the sugar ships, and it repays an afternoon with a guide who can tell you which door is a museum and which is still a working terreiro. Paraty, down the coast, kept its whole colonial grid and shuts it to cars.
Brazil, one region at a time.
Rio is where most trips start and it earns three days on its own. Iguaçu is a flight west. Salvador is a flight north, Manaus four hours past that. São Paulo is an hour down the coast and eats better than either.
Some people book the activity first.
Twelve shapes a Brazilian day can take: a schooner, a jeep, a bar crawl, a seven-hour climb. Pick one and the priced options sit behind it.
The Costa Verde starts an hour south.
Vans leave Copacabana early for the lagoons at Arraial, the islands off Angra, the cobbles at Paraty and the imperial palace up the mountain at Petrópolis. None of it needs an overnight bag.
Seventy-two hours, in the right order.
Nobody sees Brazil in a week, but the first three days can be got right. This is the order that works when you land in Rio on a morning flight.
Day 1
Both mountains
Corcovado at opening, before the cloud settles on the statue. Sugarloaf for the second cable car of the afternoon, so the city lights come on while you are still up there.
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Day 2
Tram, tiles and the arches
Santa Teresa by tram, the Selarón steps, lunch in Centro, then Lapa once the arches light up. Add a morning in Rocinha if you want to understand the city rather than photograph it.
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Day 3
West to the falls
The early flight to Foz do Iguaçu. Brazilian side first for the panorama, the boat under the falls after lunch, and the Argentine catwalks next morning if you can stretch to a second night.
Plan the Iguaçu day →
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